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About My Next Move

My Next Move is an interactive tool for job seekers and students to learn more about their career options. My Next Move has tasks, skills, salary information, and more for over 900 different careers. Users can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or through the O*NET Interest Profiler, a tool that offers personalized career suggestions based on a person's interests and level of work experience.

My Next Move is developed and maintained by the National Center for O*NET Development, under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Learn more about O*NET.

For an overview of the search features and content, download the two-page "Desk Aid" PDF.

About the data

The careers listed here, along with occupational information except as listed below, come from the 17.0 release of the O*NET Database. Information in the database comes from incumbent workers, supplemented by occupational experts and analysts. Learn more about O*NET data collection.

For more information about the data used in a particular career, see our career data sources list.

Career outlook designations reflect estimates of future demand across the United States. National growth and job openings projections are provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010-2020 employment projections external site. New & Emerging occupations are identified by the National Center for O*NET Development Taxonomy Project.

  • Bright outlook careers are New & Emerging occupations, are expected to have at least a 29% increase in employment over 2010-2020, or are projected to have 100,000 or more job openings over 2010-2020.
  • Average outlook careers are projected to have at least a 10% increase in employment over 2010-2020, but don't meet the criteria for Bright outlook.
  • Below average outlook careers don't meet the criteria for Bright or Average outlook.

Salary information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011 wage data external site.

State map information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011 employment location quotient data external site. The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average. On the maps, "above average" states have a location quotient in the upper third of reported data for the career, and "below average" states have a location quotient in the lower third.

Apprenticeship titles are provided for careers from the O*NET-Apprenticeship Crosswalk external site, published by the National Crosswalk Service Center. Apprenticeship contact information comes from the USDOL/ETA Office of Apprenticeship external site.

Industry employment is provided by the 2010 "industry employment by occupation" statistics, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections external site.

Career pages at My Next Move provide links to external sites where appropriate, including the following sites sponsored by USDOL/ETA:

About the O*NET Interest Profiler

The O*NET Interest Profiler is one of several O*NET Career Exploration Tools developed for career counseling, career planning, and career exploration. The O*NET Interest Profiler is a tool designed to assess individual's vocational interests. The web-based version of the tool features 60 items which measure six types of Holland (1997) occupational interests: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C), collectively called RIASEC. To learn more about the development of this tool, or to download the paper-and-pencil version, visit the O*NET Interest Profiler Short Form page at the O*NET Resource Center.